VIDEO POKER

Inside Straights In Joker Poker

I've taught Kings or Better Joker Wild for years. At the level I teach the game, I say you never hold inside straights. There is one exception to this we omit in class (hand contains a joker, king high, with a flush penalty, such as from W Kh Qs Td 3h you hold WKQT but from W Kh Qs Td 3s you hold WK) because for the most part I don't cover penalty cards in the classes. The reason I give in class for not holding inside straights is that straights pay less in this game (15, for a 5-coin straight) than they do in most other video poker games.

The amount you receive for straights, though, is at most half the picture. In Deuces Wild, for example, straights pay only 10 and you hold inside straights in that game. In Double Joker Poker, a game where straights pay the same 15 credits as they do in the Kings or Better game, you DO hold inside straights. What gives?

One difference is in how often you connect on the straights. From Qh Th 9s 8c 3h, you'd hold QT in Joker Poker and QT98 in Double Joker Poker. In the first game you have 5 cards to connect on the inside straight (four jacks plus the joker) while in the second game you have 6 cards to connect on the inside straight (four jacks plus two jokers). This increases the value of the inside straight by 17.5%, which is enough to change the play. It might seem like the value of the inside straight would increase by 20% because 6 is 20% more than 5, but there are different numbers of cards in the two decks so that changes things a little.

In the 9/5 version of Double Joker Poker, inside straights are NEVER preferred to a suited JT, sometimes preferred to a suited QJ or QT, and ALWAYS preferred to a suited KQ, KJ, KT, AK, AQ, AJ, and AT. In addition, an inside straight is preferred to all 2-card straight flushes (like 56 or 57) and the only single natural card you ever hold in this game --- namely the T (but then only without any flush or adjacent straight interference.)

With a single joker, an inside straight is sometimes held in Double Joker Poker. It is nip and tuck whether it is higher or lower than an individual mid-card. That is, from W 4s 5h 7d 9c, hold W457 but from W 4s 6h 7d Tc, hold WT.

It's an easy conclusion to make that since the single joker, K-high inside straight with a flush penalty is the ONLY one held in the Kings or Better Joker Wild game, that it MUST also be held in the Double Double Joker game because the later game holds a lot more inside straights. But it's also an incorrect conclusion. The games are very different and cross-game comparisons are tricky. In the Kings or Better game, for example, the hand in question is a GUARANTEED winner because it includes both a joker and a king --- the combination giving you a paying pair.

With two dealt jokers, one NEVER holds a completed straight, as the two jokers by themselves are worth more than 15 in expected value. And since you never hold a completed straight, holding an inside straight draw (or even an open-ended straight draw) is out of the question.